Let's get the biggest news out of the way for the videophiles: Xbox 360 now supports MPEG-4, which means the box plays both DivX and XviD files without a hitch. 1UP tested almost every variation of the format possible, including high-definition content as high as 1080P. All the files ran flawlessly, though Microsoft told us there's no guarantee all formats will be compatible -- but we imagine most will.

Oh, I'm just mocking the company line on the feature. Lots of things are encoded with mpeg4, but the most popular, uh, content on the internet is divx/xvid.

divx/xvid are all just mpeg4 encoded streams stored (typically) in an avi container. divx has actually introduced their own container at this point, dmf, which should also work on the xbox, as it's just another extension to avi.

Added support to not write trial-version Arcade games to user's played games history (this is only for newly downloaded games after the Dec'07 update is released)

I can't believe it took two freaking years to get that done. Of course I will still have about 70 Arcade trials listed on my games played list, but at least they won't go there in the future.

Quote

Improve transition speed of blades

Improved enumeration speed of lists in games blade

Improved performance of Guide Transitions

Improved responsiveness of Dashboard overall

Improved Xbox guide performance ~2x

This sort of thing was badly needed. After the last update or so, my dashboard response has been way too slow. A small, dedicated interface like that should never have hesitations and pauses as far as I'm concerned.

Added support to not write trial-version Arcade games to user's played games history (this is only for newly downloaded games after the Dec'07 update is released)

I can't believe it took two freaking years to get that done. Of course I will still have about 70 Arcade trials listed on my games played list, but at least they won't go there in the future.

Quote

Improve transition speed of blades

Improved enumeration speed of lists in games blade

Improved performance of Guide Transitions

Improved responsiveness of Dashboard overall

Improved Xbox guide performance ~2x

This sort of thing was badly needed. After the last update or so, my dashboard response has been way too slow. A small, dedicated interface like that should never have hesitations and pauses as far as I'm concerned.

to tell you the truth it has been a little slow for me ever since halo 3 came out and fooked xbox live up that day

here is a video 9 minutes long of the dahsboard features...pretty good vid,and looking at the dashboard now,where it has xbox inside where your messages used to be,and friends and messages are on the same line,and the game store where the xbox originals will be as well as arcade games....watch the vid to see what i mean

anyone else happy to see this fix? i switched to the 360 wireless adapter a couple months ago and have been incredibly annoyed that i never sign in to Live automatically anymore...local profile signs in on its own, but i have to manually log in to Live every time i turn on my 360. it's a little issue but one i'm really glad to see they've fixed

anyone else happy to see this fix? i switched to the 360 wireless adapter a couple months ago and have been incredibly annoyed that i never sign in to Live automatically anymore...local profile signs in on its own, but i have to manually log in to Live every time i turn on my 360. it's a little issue but one i'm really glad to see they've fixed

Yep, me too. Although there was a brief period a few weeks ago when mine was auto logging in, but that has since stopped and I am back to manually logging in everytime.

Well, I skimmed it all but didnt see anything in there about how they are going to get my games available in an offline mode. I still cannot play any of the live arcade games Ive bought unlesss im signed in to xbox live..Wouldnt be too much of a problem but my wife plays a lot and she cannot even access them at all any more on her account since I got my new box in Sept. Still waiting on Microsoft to resolve this for me.

Really seems like there should be a way for them to include an option to re-key titles you've bought to a new xbox. I keep meaning to test if having the tag that downloaded the games logged into live will allow other tags on the console to access the full versions.

Well, I skimmed it all but didnt see anything in there about how they are going to get my games available in an offline mode. I still cannot play any of the live arcade games Ive bought unlesss im signed in to xbox live..Wouldnt be too much of a problem but my wife plays a lot and she cannot even access them at all any more on her account since I got my new box in Sept. Still waiting on Microsoft to resolve this for me.

I've heard of people putting up enough of a fit to MS to finally get them to take off the games and recredit their account so that can purchase them again. Worth a shot if you're good at not taking a no for an answer.

I want to be able to put a different wallpaper for each blade, is there a way to do that or just one pic for all blades?

only one pic for all blades right now...maybe in the future...

you mean more than one theme for all the blades?..so it shows say,call of duty 4 theme on one blade and scarface on another?..because the themes have more than one picture(scarface theme is my favourite)

they need to lower the price on those games if they want it to work. $15 is too much when a million copies of crimson skies are out there for under $5 used, and you can sell that copy when you get done with it. they also need to let you sell the downloads. i would buy a lot more arcade games if i could recoup some $ when i've finished it.

let us do custome themes using any graphic from any theme we have and choose our own wallpapers per blade. i would love to get a game theme per blade with a screenshot from some of my games as the bg.

tuesday is going to suck for live access i think. this sounds like a big'un and everyone will be grabbing it quickly

I love how the blades now "pop" a lot quicker than they used to be. Like, when hitting to download something, the blade will really pop out there quickly. I really, really like this, because I hated the slowness of the blade before.

Friends of friends or whatever and MS tauting it as "social media" is retarded, so I won't get into that.

Friends list browsing is a little different because the person you're on pops a little due to their gamertag expanding a bit. Kinda neat.

Tried out the divx/xvid video this morning and it worked perfectly even with my running gimped wireless (WDS). Watched the Doctor Who Children in Need special and it played flawlessly. +1000 cool points to my X-Box for a feature I never thought it would have.

I downloaded the update early this morning and it applied without a hitch. This was my first Live update since I've gotten my X360, so I had a minuscule amount of fear that my system would restart with the RRoD's. However, I did notice that after the update there was a slight delay whenever I attempted to cursor down a dashboard page after I had just moved to it.

i updated...everything was fine....except i still have that singing out problem

the signing out problem happens when i am on the dashboard not doing anything,and it signs me out,and i have to turn off the 360 and reset my modem...it only started doing it since the problems for COD4 got fixed....i know someone on xbox.com who had the same problem,and i use the same modem for my PS3 and thats fine(if i ever turn that on)...thankfully though it doesnt sign me out when i am actually playing games online or off(meaning single player off line..i will still be signed in while playing the single player)

anyway,i bit and i am currently downloading all 3.2 gig of Farenheit....FABLE will prolly be next,but the speed its downloading it will prolly have to wait until tomorrow night...i think Fable is 3.something gig as well....while HALO(which i wont be downloading)is 2.3 gig i think

i also updated my profile typed a bit of shit for people to read(no change there then )

and it took me about 5 minutes to find out where my Demos now were...bastards